In the last round of the tournament we’d get to face Latvia: these guys are relative newcomers to the ETC scene, but they had a couple of Russian mecenaries with past tournament experience. At this point everyone was getting tired, so memory of the game might be a bit hazy.

Going into the game, a couple of mates from other countries warned me that the team was notorious for playing slowly. So during the entire game, I kept nudging Roman to play a bit faster, as he was taking a lot of time for each move. After the game, he revealed that he was actually a replacement player, and that he didn’t have much experience with the army, which is why he took so much time. I kind of felt bad, since my pressure may have lessened his enjoyment of the game, so I’ll use this space to apologize once more to him (in case he’s reading).

We got to play Flank Attack and Secure Target (that makes what? 5/6 games?) and my adversary won the roll for choosing sides. He promptly parked his Shrieking Horrors behind the immense impassable terrain in the middle, with his troops guarding either side and properly covered by the Altars of Undeath.

I opted to put my objective on the top left corner, as far away from his deployment zone as possibble. That meant that he’d have to deviate one scoringunit from his battleline to claim it, making my chances of killing it with something fast (kestrels, BD) substantial.

After alternating deployments for a while, I forced my opponent to go first by dropping my entire army. I pushed the kestrels to the left forward, within range of the Shrieking Horrors’ scream. I wanted to bait them out of hiding to be able to deal with them swiftly. As long as they hid behind that impassable I couldn’t really dare to press the attack.

TURN 1

The Vampires aren’t pressed: movement is minimal on their side. The Kestrel bait was unfortunately refused, and in the magic phase a huge amount of zombies and skeletons were raised.
On my turn, I began hatching a plan: even at 60-strong, the spearmen will fall to a combo-charge from the BSB’s retinue and the treefather. So the plan was to storm the right flank with them, while trying to keep the left flank at bay with minimal casualties.
With 3 magic missiles, I tried to whittle down the wraiths to the left: only the Insect swarm went through, and it failed to cause any wounds. My shooting didn’t have any good targets, so they took some potshots at the skeletons.

TURN 2

Again, movement for the vampires was minimal. A good magic phase saw my opponent raise the right skeletons and the zombies to full strength, and then he even managed to conjure a free zombie unit on the left flank.
In response, both Kestrel Knight units performed outflanking maneuvers: on the right I wanted to pull the shrieking horror out of position, while on the left the target was the vampire knights. In the middle, the treefather and dancers both advanced a bit towards the skeleton spearmen.
Magic was uneventful, as was shooting.

TURN 3

The vampire knights took the bait but failed to get in. The 60-strong spear block advanced towards my bladedancers on the right. Magic was now focused on raising the other skeleton block, and they too reached the maximum level.

This turn I sent my right treefather in the skeletons, making it in. The bladedancers bid their time: still enough turns for them to commit, but I’d rather not risk losing the scoringunit to lucky skeleton rolls. On the left flank I couldn’t declare a legal charge on the vampire knights, which kind of ruined my plans for the kestrels.
I moved my left treefather within the Shrieking Horror’s threat range, making sure that he’d have to land on the ruins to be able to scream at me. The Kestrels, small Bladedancers and Forest Guard all moved in support. To the right, I gave up my other kestrels to the shrieking horror to pull him out of position: I didn’t want the beastie to set up any flank charges onthe treefather.
All of my magic was aimed at the left Shrieking Horror, but failed to wound the monster.
In combat the treefather took a wound, but… [Read More]

For the fifth round we were drawn against Australia: the guys from down under have a reputation of being fun but also quite capable generals. We had the pleasure of facing them in Athens during the 2016 ETC, and they gave us a good spanking on the last round of the tournament sending us down to the bottom half of the results table.

This year the Australian team didn’t only bring the usual suspects, but they enlisted the help of former German team captain@Frederick (of T9A fame). So the chances of winning the round were pretty slim, but we had to try and make it work.

One list that caused a lot of issues was the dreaded Peasant Army, led by none other than Mr Akhter Khan. In the end I got to face him, and I was very glad to do so as our vampire count player couldn’t stop rambling last year about how awesome their game was and how fun a player Akhter is. (this would also prove to be true in our game, facing Mr Foodmonster was a pleasure)

Having played this matchup before against Yannick from team Germany, I knew that the key to even have a chance was to rush forward with the treefathers, dodge every single projective the KoE threw their way and get into combat. The rest of the list is practically free points for the peasants if I ever engage, so the trees would have to do the heavy lifting.

Akhter picked a corner and deployed his army in a very compact manner, making sure to not leave any space for a totemic summon to threaten his trebuchets. I responded by putting the trees centrally and far enough to rush the KoE lines, with dancers and kestrels in support. The juicy targets for Trebuchets stayed hidden behind the hill and building. My opponent won the first turn roll and started the game.

With no considerable movement, we went straight into magic: The Unerring Strike was dispelled, then the Fate’s Judgment went through irresistibly on the closest kestrels. The spell was lost, and a single kestrel fell to the spell’s damage. The massed shooting managed to deal a further 2 wounds on the kestrels despite needing 7’s to hit. The Trebuchets failed to hit the Treefathers.

The wounded kestrels moved back to safety, right behind the building. They’d stay there all game long. The archers also spent a good amount of time hiding behind that building, wary of any stray trebuchet rocks. In the middle, the Treefathers rushed forward, with the wardancers close behind and inside the forest’s protection. The Forest Guard reformed 2-deep and moved up to give my Druidline of sight to the warmachines.

In the magic phase the Insect swarm went through, dealing 3 wounds to one of the Trebuchets.

The Peasant line angled to face my treefathers, the far left unit wheeling to threaten with countercharges. Magic saw a bubble scrying go off, but the Unerring strike was dispelled yet again. Shooting was focused on the Treefathers now, and a couple of wounds went through on one tree.

Yet again, things were straightforward: the trees moved up aggressively, just making sure that the peasants wouldn’t be able to charge out of LoS of either of them. Kestrels moved up to the flank of the peasant line, and the dryads and bladedancers stayed in support of the trees.

In combat I managed to heal one of the wounds on the Treefather. My opponent stopped the totemic summon, and the insect swarm failed to cast. Shooting with the tree roots dropped a couple of peasants.

The peasant levy declined the charge, and instead decided to try and kill the treefather from afar. In the magic phase I stopped the Unerring Strike once more, and the scrying bubble went off. The shooting was ineffective, thankfully: only a couple of wounds were suffered, in a combination of bad rolls for Akhter and spectacular saves for the forest giants.

Our fourth opponent at ETC was to be Ukraine: some of my teammates had already met and played them at the Herford warm-up, so we knew we were up for good and fun games. I got to play Andrii, with his very Dwarf-y Dwarven Holds army:

So a list very different from what I’d faced before: two big sturdy blocks, good redirectors, a very potent counter to my Treefathers in the form of the S10 King, a mobile scorer and a healthy dose of accurateartillery.

We got to play Secure Target and deployment was Flank Attack. I won the roll for sides and opted to pick the big centre and the side with decent terrain to hide my troops behind. The two objectives went on the two flanks.

For spells, my Druid got the Beast Awakens, Pounding Drumbeat, Break the Spirit and Totemic Summon while the Matriarch had to settle for Spirits of the Wood and Entwined Roots.
My opponent chose to deploy in a careful manner, essentially castling around the left corner and near one of the objectives. He then gave me the first turn.

The dwarven Organ Gun was deployed a tad too forward, giving my kestrels a very juicy second turn charge target. Both units of kestrels moved inside the protection of the sylvan forest, and they were looking at a 7+ and 8+ charge to silence the warmachine on the following turn. The Forest Guard to the right slowly began moving towards the right hand objective.

The Treefathers moved up cautiously, with the fragile elves staying far behind and protected from all kinds of cover.

Magic and Shooting were of no consequence this turn, although my opponent had to use his Rune of Denial to stop the Totemic Summon from getting cast.

The Kingsguard performed a 90 degree turn to threaten the kestrels should they charge the Organ Gun, while the Greybeards moved up aggressively towards the flyers. The steam copters relocated and the entire dwarven shooting was focused on the sylvan fast support:

The Organ Gun failed to hit (needing 8’s), the Steam Copters put a wound on the right unit and it was the catapult that managed to kill another bird with a lucky shot.

Both Kestrels charged into the Organ Gun, and the Treefather right behind charged into the Steam Copter, forcing it to flee. Unfortunately, all units failed to make it in! That really put a damper on my plans for a quick win, as now both units stumbled out of cover and right in front of the greybeards!

In the magic phase I tried my best to mitigate the situation: the totemic summon was dispelled, which allowed me to cast Treesinging on my forest and move it right under the kestrels once more! Then I unfortunately failed to cast Break the Spirit on the Greybeards.

The Greybeards flank charged into the right kestrel unit. The Kingsguard turned to face the sylvan force once more, while the miners popped up and, to my surprise, appeared behind my Bladedancers (I was expecting them to try and contest the right objective instead). The fleeingsteam bomber rallied, and the second one chaffed my Treefather next to the building.

Runic magic bestowed rerolls to hit on the Greybeards, the other runes getting stopped. Shooting was directed at the left Treefather, causing a wound. The grudge thrower missed the right Treefather, and the Miners killed 3 dancers with pistol shots. In combat, the Greybeards made short work of the kestrels and overran into the second unit. They took a couple of wounds from dangerous terrain, though!

The magic phase was brutally effective: some very good rolls saw me put Break the Spirit on the Greybeards, and Awaken the Beast on the flanking Bladedancers. Shooting dropped four miners.

The treefather made short work of the steam copter, and the big combat was an impressive show of force by the S5 Bladedancers: when everything was said and done, out of the 23 greybeards initially in the unit, only four remained! They retaliated by… [Read More]

On round 3 we were paired up against Switzerland: with a very good showing last year, they’d come up with lists that were relatively out of the box, and quite dangerous. Looking at them, I had several medium to good matchups, but there were two lists that I definitely wanted to avoid: The Pyromancy/Bowline OnG and the MSU Dwarves of @polux.

In the end, I had to settle for a match against Filip and his Saurian ancients, in Secure target and Refused Flank.

So a pretty straightforward list: 3 stubborn roadblocks backed by druidism for healing, a decent amount of shooting in the form of the spearbacks/salamanders and a Pathmaster of Divination to keep my big targets honest.

The good news were that without any cowboys my units “only” had to deal with the three taurosaurs before getting to the soft part of the army.

We traded deployment drops for a while, then my opponent forced me to go first by dropping the rest of his army. I ended up with a weighed left flank, the two treefathers relatively central and a unit of Kestrels and the small BD looking over the rightmost objective. The Saurians were squaring off against the treefathers and the small elven contingent, with the three Taurosaurs covering the left flank.

Having played against this kind of list before, I knew that I had to pull the taurosaurs out of position; as long as they stay within 12” of the quatl charging them is a bad idea, and the same applies if they can support each other.So I decided to sacrifice one unit of kestrels for a chance to open up the saurian lines.

The kestrels moved up within charging range of the leftmost taurosaur, tempting the charge, while the BD with BSB moved into position for countercharge. In the middle, the treefathers moved up a bit to threaten the enemy advance: All I had to do to win was to delay the scorers long enough to the right while securing the objective on the top left.

Magic started with an insect swarm on the closest taurosaur, which bounced off without effect thanks to the engine’s ward save. The ring of fire was dispelled. The archers opened fire at the closest spearbacks, dealing 2 wounds at long range.

Filip proved to be too smart for my tricks: instead of charging my kestrels, he moved two taurosaurs in range for some blowpipe shots. The salamanders also moved up to shoot at them. In the middle, the spearbacks had a clear shot at the treefather, so moved up to take it. The rest of the army advanced cautiously, the cuatl getting in range for some spells.

Magic started with a miscast Fate’s Judgment on the right treefather: I let it through, my armour saving the wounds caused. The spell was lost in return, so definitely a good tradeoff! The Unerring Strike was then dispelled with dice.

Shooting was a bit more effective: the combined efforts of the blowpipes and the salamanders dropped two kestrels, effectively taking them out of the game. The right treefather shrugged off all of the spearbacks’ shots thanks to his armour and ward.

With the original trap avoided, I figured that I had to put some pressure on the saurians: the kestrel moved back, and I offered a long charge on the BSB’s bladedancer retinue to the taurosaurs. Both treefathers advanced to be able to shoot some roots at the wounded spearbacks. The Forest Guard shuffled a bit towards the objective marker, and would keep on doing that all game long.

Magic started yet again with a successful insect swarm, this time dealing a single wound to the closest taurosaur. The rest was dispelled by the quatl with ease. Shooting was focused on the spearbacks, and between the two treefathers’ shots and the 20 sylvan archers, I managed to kill the unit and get some points!

After some deliberation, my opponent decided not to take the long charge on the bladedancers. He shuffled the taurosaurs around, careful to keep all of them within the Engine bubble. The quatl and braimans stayed relatively put.

In the magic phase I had to let a bubble Scrying go off to try and dispel the Unerring strike: my adversary was kind enough to fail his casting attempt for the latter, though, so the magic phase ended… [Read More]

The second round saw us get paired against team Bulgaria, who also scored a very convincing win on round 1. I was to play none other than Hristo, AKA @Fnarrr, team captain and ETCveteran with his dwarves.

Hristo brought a list that I didn’t really get at first, but the more I looked at it the more it became clear that it was very well constructed:

With the potential to move forward aggressively if need be, four hard counters for my monsters and enough firepower to take small points here and there, I knew I was in for a good scrap.

We got to play Counterthrust and Secure Target.

I unfortunately won the roll to pick sides, meaning that I had to drop my secondary objective counter first: I did so right in front of a forest deep inside the dwarven deployment zone, while my opponent put his near my center. Hristo got to deploy first, and we alternated deployments as per the counterthrust scenario. He used his gyrobombers to claim big deployment zones around the building on the right hand side, and I in return used the Kestrels to limit the deployment possibilities on the flanks. In the end, he had to give me a cannon-free lane for my treefathers right behind the building, and chose to play first.

post vanguards:

For magic, I failed to get either magic missile: the Druid got beast awakens, howling wind, break the spirit and totemic summon, while the Matriarch got entwining roots and healing waters. This made everything a bit harder, as I was counting on the missiles to put some pressure on the warmachines early on.

Vanguards saw the marksmen move up on the right side, the seekers stood their ground to deter any aggressive movement from my kestrels. My flyers redeployed a bit behind the building, ready to threaten the warmachines on turn 2.

TURN 1 – Dwarves

The dwarves didn’t really have to push, so only the seekers redeployed slightly towards the building. One gyrobomber managed to drop some bombs on the right hand kestrels, wounding once. The second flying contraption moved closer to the rest of the dwarven forces.

In the magic phase my opponent got a low roll and I channeled, leading to an equal amount of dice. It became clear that he had a very potent magic combination, though: he opted for two casting attempts to move the gyrobomber so as to drop bombs once more on my kestrels, then followed with the rune of Shattering and rune of Storms. Fortunately, between bad casting rolls and decent dispelling on my part I stopped everything.

Shooting was largely ineffective due to the absence of good targets for the cannons and the fact that my entire army was either in soft or in hard cover.

From my opponent’s first turn I gathered two things: He had ranged supremacy in both magic and shooting, and he wasn’t going to push anytime soon. The way I saw it, the Kestrels were going to die to shooting and magic if they didn’t commit, so I opted for an aggressive opening turn. They both flew over the building and landed right in front of the warmachine battery. The treefathers advanced cautiously, staying behind the cover of the building. The rest of the army moved up a bit to deter any moves from the two monster hunters.

In the magic phase, I got a 10/5 pool, which was perfect for what I had planned: my adversary had left the anvil, the cannon and a unit of warriors inside the forest, and both my treefathers were in range for treesinging. So I started with a totemic summon on 4 dice, to draw the enemy dispel dice, but I unfortunately failed to meet the casting cost! So much for my perfect plan! One treesinging was dispelled but the other dealt 3 wounds on the cannon at least.

The Sylvan archers’ arrows were aimed at the closest gyrobomber for lack of a better target, but failed to wound the dwarven flyer.

The entire dwarven battleline was reorganized to face the incoming threat: the miners arrived on my opponent’s table edge, gyrobombers moved up to bomb the flyers and all the thrown weapon infantry reformed to face them as well. The seekers moved up towards the treefathers. The bombing runs managed to drop a couple of kestrels from one unit, failing to panic the elven elite.

Another ETC has come and gone, and what a blast it has been! I’ll try to do these write ups before memory fades, and I promise it will be a treat: 6 great games with good, fun opponents in the world’s premier T9A team tournament!

For those who haven’t been following the ETC scene very closely, I was invited for the second year in a row to play for team Belgium (where I currently reside). The belgian team is a bunch of very nice guys, and it made for some very nice moments during the weekend. During the entire year, I’ve been struggling to find a list that I enjoy playing and can perform well enough totake to an event of this magnitude. In the end, I opted for a combination of blunt combat force, magic support and mobile shock troops (some of my teammates would call them Beast Herds in disguise).

For our first game we were to play the kiwis, whose reputation as a fun team preceded them. Last year they couldn’t make it, so we were all looking forward to meeting and playing with the people that covered the most distance to be at the ETC!

Since the pairing was known ahead of time, we had the possibility to prepare our predictions for the matches beforehand: one list that proved to be a problem for everyone was the Ogre Khans, since it combined very good shooting elements, a very potent counter to any big monsters and MSU for scoring purposes. After a lot of deliberation, I gave the green light to my captain to throw me under the bus, if it would help out in the rest of the matches. This was to my opponent’s delight, who had put the match down as a very favorable one.

Thankfully, the scenario was Secure Target and not Breakthrough, which meant that I had a decent chance of tying the secondary objective.

Simon was the friendliest guy, and we started off the game with some dice and T-shirt exchanges, as is customary at the ETC. He even gave me some custom-made objective markers that came in very handy during the entire tournament (I would end up playing Secure Target another 4 times).

We got Frontline Clash as our deployment type, and I picked the side with a big hill to act as cover for my units for the first few turns. The two markers went down 24” apart from each other on the left flank. I chose to place mine deep into my opponent’s zone, as I find that this forces him to keep some units in reserve: ogre units are prone to panic outside of the general’s bubble, so with the help of Totemic Beasts I can hope to panic the scorers off my enemy’s objective and claim a cheeky win.

We alternated deployment drops for a while, then my opponent dropped everthing and gave me the first turn: with all of his shooting safely tucked away in forests/ruins, my opening volley would not have that much of an impact.

For magic, I got Awaken the Beast, Insect Swarm, Pounding Drumbeat and Totemic Summon with my Druid. The matriarch got Throne, Spirits of the Woods and Stone Skin. The Ogre Shaman took Immolation, Scorching Salvo, Pyroclastic Flow and Enveloping Embers.

The way we had deployed , the two kestrel units were squaring off against two units of bruisers and a unit of bombardiers: I knew from previous matches that kestrels can take these on the charge one-on-one, so I moved them up aggressively, trying to make it happen. On the left, movement was far more conservative: both trees hugged the hill, as did the forest guard. The archers and dancers hid inside my forest: I wanted to force as many penalties for shooting as possible, thus limiting early casualties.

Magic failed to have an impact this turn, and a volley shot from the archers into the left bombardiers only caused a single wound.